Saturday, December 13, 2008

Saturday miscellany...

Aisha in Zimbabwe- a poem

Aisha is mother to her sister, Khadija,their mother died of AIDS last year.Aisha has a soft, round face,lucky for her, she is H.I.V. negative.She struggles to get drugs for Khadija,who at 11 years is H.I.V. positive.

Last year, Aisha took her little sister,(Khadija appears half her actual age)to Parirenyatwa Hospital,the nation's largest.They waited in the vast courtyard,amidst the hungry and the festering,a hospital official finally notices them,he calls them in and with a gravelly voicetells them that some crucial test resultsneeded to qualify the little one formedications were strangely misplaced.They will need to come back laterand redo the tests once again.

On a later visit, Aisha is toldthe machine used for the tests was broken.A couple of weeks later, the hospital finallyclosed. Of course, they were referred toprivate doctors. Doctors who had demandedpayment in S.A. rand or U.S. dollars.The girls could not do this,they had no money.

Aisha used to escape the sadnessby going to school, two months agothe teachers at her high schoolstopped going to school.Of her math teacher, Aisha wistfully says"She didn't bid us farewell, she just left"

Aisha now barters her labor for food,Khadija is too weak to work.Last week, Aisha was overjoyedShe was starting a four-day job,It did not matter that she wasbent over in a field, all day,readying it for planting corn.In exchange, she would get two poundsof flour, a bottle of cooking oiland clothes. She plans to keep a shirtand blouse for Khadija. She prays thatKhadija will fit into the standard sizes.Aisha needs to get her job done soon,before the rains lash down on the red earth.The same rains that will drip intotheir little room during theunannounced late monsoon bursts.

The girls pray together every nightthey sleep in a tiny, windowless room.A small room in a small house thatbelongs to their mothers father.A grandfather whose takes his shareof the little food that Aisha brings home.Aisha also has an uncle living with them.He is 45 years old. He is too lazy to workand sometimes steals her cornmeal.

Like other girls, these two have dreams,Aisha wants to be a doctor,Khadija, a bank teller.Aisha wants to be a doctor to help peoplelike her little sister, shriveling before her.In her sleep, Khadija dreams… of growing up,she dreams of having children, she alsodreams of becoming a bank teller andrepaying the unpayabe debts owed toher older sister, asleep next to herhugging her little, emaciated frame.

Note: I wrote this poem using lines adapted from a story about the cholera raging in Zimbabwe printed in yesterday's Times. I had attempted a similar 'poem adaption' exercise earlier here.